Repetition
by Debel
Summary: Once again the evil company Shinra has arisen, and it's up to Cloud and company to take them down again. But due to a certain 'somebody', this will be harder than it seems...
1. Chapter 1 Taking the train

**Comments** – This is the first proper Fanfic I've decided to sit down and write about, so it won't be any surprise to me if it isn't any good. I'm sorry if there's any spelling errors, I've really tried to minimalize them, although the odd one will slip through occasionally. Anyway… enough of the waffle, better start the story.

**Chapter 1- Taking the Train**

Vincent sat on the train, his head leaning against the window, it's cold surface pressing against his cheek. Every breath he took steamed the same spot of glass, but every time he did this, the condensation disappeared just as fast as it appeared. Opposite him was Yuffie, kneeling on the bench and staring out of the window, like a child at the zoo. She kept bobbing up and down on the spot every time she saw something she liked, and after about twenty times of bobbing at a pretty bird, or a train passing the other way, Vincent was growing very impatient watching her. After doing the same again, she finally broke through his thick wall of ignorance, causing him to snap

"Will you just stop that?" The whole train went silent, staring at him, and he made a quick quiet apology to them before continuing. "Can't you just stay still and look casual?" he whispered harshly. She folded her arms and sulked.

"But I am _so _bored!" she whinged. "I'm not allowed to sing, hum, kick my seat, and now I'm not allowed to look out the window!"

"You're six_teen_, not six," Vincent said. "We only have ten minutes till we get there anyway, so just sit down and shut up,"

"Cloud wouldn't be this rude to me," she said. "Why did I get stuck with you?"

"Yeah? Well Cloud and me are different. He has his ways, and I have mine." He paused. "And I'm stuck with you because _I_ drew the short straw," he added in a louder tone.

"Yeah, well that works both ways. You aren't my ideal travelling buddy either. You ignore me; that's ignorant! Ig-nor-ant!" she said crossly. Vincent had the urge to ask her 'who doesn't?', but he thought he'd prove her right but not responding to her. He heard her sigh, and heard nothing else from her. He peered out of the window, watching the busy town outside. It hadn't taken long for Midgar to return, and, as he had expected, to begin once again to churn the Mako, the life, from the planet. He watched the airships hover through the sooty skies, and the cars driving though the dirty streets. After all the hard work Cloud had gone to to restore the earth, the town was back, as was the company 'Shinra'. He could feel the train begin to slow down, and Yuffie immediately jumped to her feet, stretching her arms. Vincent made no attempt to wait for her and left without her, forcing her to run to keep up with him.

"What're you thinking about?" she asked, after finally catching up with him. She stuck her head in his range of sight.

"What do you mean?" he asked irritatedly.

"Well, seeing as you're so quiet, I figured you must be thinking about something, like Cloud does; he goes quiet when he's thinking too,"

"Maybe I just like it that way," he muttered coldly.

"C'mon, there's gotta be _something_ going on in there," she made a move to knock on his head, though he pushed her hand away before she had a chance.

"Let's just go, okay? We need to meet Cloud so we can discuss our mission,"

"Our mission? Oh, right. What is the mission? How come nobody's told me? I'm responsible!" she frowned when Vincent gave her no answer, and continued to walk. "Hello? _Hello?_" he gave her a glare. "What's going on? Tell- me!" she grabbed his arm and tugged it downwards. For a female younger than him, she had a surprising amount of strength. However, he was still stronger, and jerked his arm upwards so hard that she was nearly lifted from the ground. "I wish I was with Tifa," she moaned. "Tifa tells me ev-ry-thing. She'd tell me what the mission was! She'd trust me! Why won't you!"

"Anybody who steals isn't trustworthy," he said seriously.

" You're still pissed off about _that_! C'mon! You _know_ I stole that Materia because my village was poor- I gave it back in the end! It was for a good cause after all! Did I harm anybody in the process? And that was ages ago! I've matured a lot since then!"

"It was only a couple of months ago, and no, you haven't matured- you've got worse! You can't just hope everybody will forget your bad deeds and you can't just ignore them," he went quiet, remembering how much this applied to him. "You have to _earn _trust," She sighed again. "I'm not telling you this mission because I don't know what you'll do about it or who you'll tell. Besides, there's not long to wait; Cloud told us to meet at the 'Moogle Bar', and that sign says it's just down there," he pointed to his left down a dark street. From the bar emmitted bright, flashing coloured lights, and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol. The sounds of drunken roars and laughs could be heard.

"Well, it's not Cloud's kind of place, but if he said we're meeting here, we're meeting here," he looked up doubtfully and the building, before pushing the door open.


	2. Chapter 2 Back to the good old days

**Chapter 2- Back to the good old days**

Cloud was standing at the bar, his eyes fixed anxiously at the door. Every now and then he'd give the clock at the wall a quick glance, but each time he did he realised that time had only increased by a couple of minutes. He looked at his companions, who were all sitting boredly, Barret on his fifth round. Nobody was taking this seriously, he thought. Nobody understands how important this is; this is a matter of life and death- not alcohol and fun. Felt a nudge in his elbow. He turned to face Tifa, who was smiling at him hopefully.

"You okay?" she asked helpfully. "You look nervous,"

"Vincent and Yuffie- they aren't here yet," he replied.

"I'm sure they're fine," She said reassuredly. "You know Vincent- he'll be okay, and Yuffie- well, er…" she trailed away and stopped. "Why? Could anything happen to them?"

"No, I'm just worried, that's all. It's not like Vincent to be late- especially for something as important as this." He looked at the clock, and yet again it told him that only three minutes had passed since he had looked at it last. Tifa had known Cloud to be like this at times, and knew that it was best for him to be left alone. Just at the right time, the door opened, and in walked Vincent and Yuffie- whom were both covering their ears- the music was significantly louder inside than it was outside.

"You're late," cloud said sternly to Vincent, who could barely make out what he had just said.

"The train, it was running late," he said, although he darted his eyes towards Yuffie as a motion of 'she was slowing me down'. Cloud took the hint and nodded, a small smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Where's the room?" Cloud asked Barret, who held up a finger in recognition, and beckoned to them to follow him. He led them to a room, where there were about five teenagers playing pool at the table. "I thought you said that you'd booked us a room," Cloud said angrily.

"Watch," Barret walked over to the teens, who had been giving him disrespectful gazes before now. Cloud nor anybody else couldn't tell what he was saying, but Barret seemed to be making a lot of hand gestures and at one particular word all the youths stared at the gun on his arm with fear. They left quickly, saying goodbye politely to everybody, and rushing out so quickly that one of them stumbled and dropped their things on the way out.

Barret stood for a moment, feeling Triumphant, before Cloud, Vincent, Yuffie, Tifa, Red and Cid joined him. As though it was a routine, Tifa and Yuffie shut the doors whilst Vincent and Cid pushed the snooker table against them. When they were certain that there was no way they could be interrupted, they all pulled up a chair and sat down, apart from Cloud and Red. Red sat on the floor, his flame-tipped tail swaying from side to side, scorching the carpet. Cloud stood infront of them all, waiting to tell them his plan.

"I assume you all got here without any 'complications'," he said. Tifa laughed.

"You try riding a Chocobo whilst trying to teach Cid to ride one at the same time," Cloud said nothing, and continued.

"I'll get straight to the point," he said, causing everybody to realise the importance of this mission. "As you all know, Shinra, the major company that has made our lives a misery- the very company we defeated only two months ago, has come back. Once again will it continue to drain Mako from our planet, and corrupt the lives of the people here," he began to pace up and down. "But not for long. I've-" he stopped when Red narrowed his eyes at him. "_We've_ come up with a way to shut this damn place down for good," he unrolled a map, which he had pulled from his pocket. "We'll be split into three groups. Tifa and I will be together, Yuffie- you're with Cid" (Cid cursed under his breath at this) "which leaves Barret and Red. Vincent- I know you can cope by yourself, so you'll be going in alone." Vincent wasn't really bothered; he was used to this kind of thing now.

"Okay then. I've assigned each team jobs to do. These smaller jobs will contribute to the larger target to shut Shinra down. Any questions?" Yuffie stuck her hand high in the air and jangled it about, but Cloud overlooked her and continued. "First- Tifa and I will target the reactors, placing an explosive on each one of them. These bombs will all explode at the same time- so we need everybody out by 24:00, Understood?" everybody nodded. "Yuffie and Cid- You're going to be finding as many people as possible to evacuate the area… make it up; tell them there's roadworks going on or something,"

"Roger!" Yuffie cried.

"Barret and Red; It's your job to go to the main centre and take charge of the control centre. The usual- threaten them with guns, but I want them all out by 24:00, agreed?" Barret and Red nodded.

"Vincent- Because your alone, I gave you the easiest job, though not easy by far. I want you to go to Hojo's lab, and see what you can dig up. After you've seen everything you want to, I want you to kill everything in there,"

"Kill…Everything?" Vincent said, shocked.

"Yup, every living thing you can find. Not only are the creatures that piece of scum makes dangerous, but I'm sure they're living an unhealthy, and unhappy and would be far happier dead. I know that part is probably the hardest, but you'll be doing them a favour. You sure you're okay with this?" Vincent nodded. "Red said he wouldn't mind swapping if you aren't,"

"I understand how they feel," Red said soothingly. Red himself had also been one of Hojo's test subjects, and therefore knew how it felt to be stuck in that lab.

"No I'm okay. Like you said- I'd be doing them a favour," Cloud continued to explain the plan in more detail, talking about how they'd get there, how they'd get in, routes to take, ventilation ducts and the positions of guards, and so much that they were all becoming drowsy. Cloud finished with the line

"But first- I think we'd better get some sleep," Yawning, he helped a sleepy Cid drag the pool table from the doorway. They opened the door to reveal a shocked bartender.

"I wondered when you guys were going to come out- I was real worried when I couldn't unlock the doors," he peered behind them as if they'd left him a dead body or buried treasure in there. "Your room's upstairs, the one on the right," he handed Barret the keys.

The room was rather small, but all of them were used to sharing one hotel room by now. Tifa and Yuffie shared the bed, sleeping opposite ways. Barret slept on the floor, as did Cloud and Red. Vincent normally went to sleep in the chair, or sitting up somewhere, and Cid (who would normally be the last to go to sleep) would end up where ever he could find to sleep. Everybody seemed to be sleeping soundly- even Cid's alcohol must have put him to sleep- everybody except Vincent, that is. He wondered whether he was the only one nervous about this mission, and then he wondered why. He had taken plenty of missions before now, heck! He was a Turk! His _job_ involved the evil deeds of Shinra. Eventually, the room began to blur, and edges soften, and complete darkness surrounded him.


End file.
